


You're Tellin' Me

by shomarus



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 16:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13685886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shomarus/pseuds/shomarus
Summary: “It’s almost Valentine’s day,” Nora remarks casually.“You made up a fake holiday forNicky, of all people?”





	You're Tellin' Me

“It’s almost Valentine’s day,” Nora remarks casually.

It’s a little late in the afternoon when she says it, idly as though it’s been on her mind for a while. Piper’d been typing away an article on Kowalski's supply—the smug little bastard—with Nora lounging on her bed. She stops immediately when these words are uttered and swivels around in her chair.

“You made up a fake holiday for _Nicky_ , of all people?” She cracks a lopsided grin and a cocked eyebrow. Though she is amused, she wonders if Nora’s fucking with her, as she sometimes does, or if this another one of those pre-war things that she casually mentions only for Piper to grow excited over. Like courthouses and television.

Nora looks over to Piper and gives a wry smile that could put her own to shame. “No, _Saint_ Valentine’s day,” she corrects, and inches ever-so-closer to the edge of the bed. That’s when Piper can tell that she’s about to get into the good stuff, where Nora rambles on and on and Piper is left strung along in admiration. “Can’t believe you guys don’t celebrate Valentine’s, of all things. Halloween was understandable, but—okay, we’re getting off-topic.”

Piper grins, though she holds out a gloved finger. “Hold up for a moment.” She digs around in her drawers to grab a spare pad of paper (it seems as though she never runs out of these, always having at least one notebook in a very convenient location) and plucks a pen from her gloved hand. “Alright, I’m givin’ you the all-clear to go wild.”

“Okay, okay, so. You know when you love someone so much that you just kinda like, never want to get off of them? Like me, for examp—” Piper kicks at Nora with her leg, eyes wild with amusement, “—hey! Play nice. Anyways, our good ol’ pal Valentine is the patron saint of romance, and after some corporate dicks thought they could make a living outta this, it bloomed into Valentine’s day. At least, that’s how I see it, but historians have yet to agree.”

Piper’s trying to scribble most of it down, though she looks up at Nora with more or less the same bemused expression. “Okay, so what’s the point? People just mackin’ on each other for the fun of it?”

“God, no!” Nora’s head shakes. “You give the people you love gifts! And you ask them to be your valentine, or some contrived shit like that.”

“Just anyone you love?” Piper asks.

“Sure, if you’re an American elementary-schooler,” she laughs. “I once went up to France on an exchange, got myself tangled up with a cute French girl along the way. She was _horrifically_ offended when she caught me writing a card to one of my other friends back in America—poor girl thought I was in cahoots with someone else.”

Piper laughs in turn, “Ain’t you the master of romance, eh?”

“Yeah, so you can guess how that ended.”

“Well, you’ve got me, so now you can make it up.” Piper presses her lips into a smug grin, though Nora’s smile turns just a smug.

“Already a step ahead of you. I’m just wondering if _you_ know when Valentine’s day is, babe.”

Piper’s mouth forms a variety of shapes before they settle on a defeated ‘oh’. “Alright, bail me out; when is it?”

“Tomorrow.”

She sighs and slaps the notebook closed. “Well, hell!”

“You know I’d understand if you don’t get me anything. I didn’t leave very much room for you to prepare, especially if Valentine’s day isn’t somethin’ that’s celebrated here much.”

Piper shrugs and tucks the notebook into the drawer from where she grabbed it from. Something she could write about at another time, possibly. “Culture that must have died out from when the ghouls got the boot, I wager. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it myself.”

“Not like there’s many gifts to give ‘round here either,” Nora adds, though she stops as though she wishes to say more. “Well, that’s not very nice of me to say. But y’know, the usual gifts were shit like roses and chocolates.”

“Chocolates?” Piper asks hesitantly.

Nora makes a face. “Man, the damn bombs took everything I love. Now chocolate? Talk about dialing ‘depressive’ to the max, wow.” She rubs at a temple with her fingers, “You’d have loved it, honestly. I know you’re a sucker for sweets. D’ya think there’s any run-down chocolate factories in Massachusetts?”

“Now that’d make for a helluva Valentine’s day,” Piper responds with a toothy little grin.

 

The entire conversation is forgotten until Piper jolts awake in a moment of inspiration. Terminal says it’s six in the morning—she’s not sure when it is that she dozed off, but Nora’s sleeping oh-so-peacefully next to her and Piper allows herself a giddy little smile. She waits a moment or two for the sleep to wear off before she tries to leave her room as quietly as she can. The creaking of her floorboards don’t help her much.

She can hear Nat’s snoring from behind the press and Piper’s smile only hikes itself up just that little bit wider. Piper slips out from the Publick and shuts the door behind her, let’s the calm stirrings of Diamond City’s morning wash over her. Sure, Diamond City smells like shit, robo-grease and noodles, but it instills a certain sense of calm over her. She’s done her part to keep this place safe, now she can only hope that the city can repay her.

Percy’s manning the Surplus and Piper’s a little glad. It’s not that shopping with Myrna is necessarily hard; no, Myrna is strangely accommodating to her. She figures it’s because of Publick Occurrences, but Piper can’t help but to feel her methodology for turning away synth clients… It’s naive, but she wouldn’t say it to her. Percy, on the other hand, just serves as he should. Quick exchange of caps, in and out.

She pulls out a handful of caps and holds out her palm to the Mr. Handy. “Hey, Perce. It’s a bit of a weird request, but do ya carry hubflowers here? I’m not a junkie, swearsies, but it’s for uh, important reasons.”

“It is not in my programming to ask why you’re buying what you’re buying, Piper!” Percy announces jovially. “Though I’ll admit that the tips of my cyberneuroreceptors fill me with the inklings of curiosity! Ah,but yes, the flowers! Solomon dumped off a few flowers sometime around three days ago, said they wouldn’t sell. Can’t imagine the chem-heads here would want to synthesize their own.”

Piper tries not to bark laughter—it’s not polite, but she’s always loved that dry, sarcastic tone. “Well, whatever you’ve got, I’ll take. Did you know that back in pre-war times, people gave like, straight up flowers to their lovers? Crazy, ain’t it?”

“Agreed,” Percy replies, although it’s then that Piper realizes that she’s gone off and perhaps the poor robot is just being polite. Not that she knows his origins, nor does she care to ask, but it’s possible that perhaps his programming goes back far enough to remember those times. She’s thankful when he moves the conversation along. “I doubt these were going to sell, even in our inventory, so you’re free to pay what you think they’re worth. Who’s the lucky lad?”

“Lady,” Piper corrects, though she separates fifteen caps for the flowers. “Well, it’s not that important anyway. Fifteen caps sounds good to you?”

She leaves the Surplus with a bouquet of hubflowers tied with dull leather string.

Nora is awake by that point, having helped herself to one of the Nuka-Colas in Piper’s fridge. She lounges on her couch with a somewhat relaxed pose. “I was wondering where you went. I was gonna give it another hour before I started combing through Diamond City Security.” She takes a sip of the cola and waves it in Piper’s general direction with a wink. “And what’s that in your hands?”

Piper suddenly feels a little silly; there’s maybe only four or five hubflowers in her little bouquet, and it looks pathetic in light of what Piper’d been expecting. Well, whatever, she was still fulfilling the spirit of Valentine’s Day. At least, from how Nora explained it.

“Flowers,” she mumbles through lips that suddenly feel slow and awkward. “You mentioned roses for Valentine’s and I figured that this was the closest we were gonna get so I thought that maybe I’d do something nice for you? ‘Cause, y’know, I love you and stuff like that. And that’s kind of embarrassing to say but I’m really happy and I dunno, I thought it was nice? Haha.”

Nora stares incredulously before letting out a round of laughter. “Oh my God, Piper! You’re so fuckin’ precious, you know that? C’mere.” She sets the cola down on the little coffee table and makes a gesture to draw Piper in.

So Piper comes closer, and the flowers are crushed between them.

**Author's Note:**

> happy valentine's day! thank you for reading!!


End file.
